


An Old Fashioned Ghost/Love Story

by CloudDreamer



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Arson, F/F, Ghosts, No logical answers here, Second Person, You Will Ship Altradia Or Else, can I not randomly insert rosemary and vrisrezi into my unrelated fics? No?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-07 20:15:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20315383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CloudDreamer/pseuds/CloudDreamer
Summary: You are Aradia Megido and you know what it is like to be a ghost and alone.Starring: Some guest stars, a long dead ghost, a recently undead girl, and Vriska. Also, one of those guest stars is June Egbert. Alt Calliope deserves good things.





	An Old Fashioned Ghost/Love Story

There’s a ghost in your house.

You know this because once upon a time, you were a ghost too. There are dark red scars around your heart, running like veins except wrong, to testify this truth. 

Some nights, you’d wake up, frozen, certain you’re dead again. But then you’d breathe, and you know from the thunder in your chest that you live. 

This ghost is a quiet one. She died so that others could live, and she has spent her death protecting the ones she left behind. She does not let herself think of regrets or of her own life, cut short. This is also familiar. 

You introduce yourself, your hand on the ancient oak walls of the manor. You’d bought it for a fraction of the price because of her, even though she wouldn’t have done anything to hurt its previous residents. 

The wind whispers a curious greeting back, along with a question: how long are you going to stay?

You say you will stay as long as you need to, and the pause before her next question indicates that she doesn’t quite believe you.

She inquires as to how you hear her so clearly, when most only feel a slight cold when she passes through them or a sense of unease when she wards away the dangers of the night with her own shadowy power. 

You’d say it’s because of your own travels to and from the void, but the truth is, you’ve always known when ghosts are near, and you tell her this.

She does not ask for more details, simply departing to haunt old furniture, inhabiting every fold in its fabric. 

-

When you cook yourself dinner, she is the heat in the flames beneath your pots, and when you read from the seemingly infinite library by candlelight, she is the soft sound of paper crinkling and whispered tales of the authors. 

Years ago, the daughter of a noble fled here to study the forbidden art of dark magic, and the ghost concealed her while the her father scoured the land, wrapping shadows around its towering architecture and the mysterious forest where dark spirits hide. The cleverest of them all sought out the newcomer, and though she mustered all her wit to trick the young seer to forfeit her soul, she was met tit for tat at every turn. In the end, they both gave their souls to the other, falling deeply in love. 

Your ghost tells you of the story as she offers your the many volumes of the seer’s journal, and although she denies it, there is loneliness and jealously in her voice. 

She stands behind you in the mirror, little more than a silhouette of smoke. When you press your fingers against her reflection, you feel a cold deeper than the natural chill of metal. 

-

Vriska tells you to sell the house over the phone. Your ghost says she is the descendant of those lovers and of one of the world’s greatest pirates.

Vriska believes in luck and the power of her ancestors, so you tell her what your ghost told you, about the seer, the spirit, and the spider of the sea.

She says to tell Terezi to stop trying to fuck with her through you. 

You say to tell her herself. 

-

June comes over with her sister Jade. You kiss them both, June on the cheek and Jade on the lips. Your ghost stays quiet throughout the movie you watch, hooked up to June’s computer, but you feel her presence in the antique couch nonetheless. She does not laugh at the funny parts, but you know she wants to.

She thinks that if she is distracted by what is fun than she will not be able to do what is necessary.

You do not tell her she is wrong as you rest your head in Jade’s lap. There are some lessons that cannot be taught with words. 

-

She has a name, and it is Calliope.

She has a name, but she would rather not be called by it. She would rather be your ghost, in your mind and to your friends.

Sollux hacks through your primitive security system, which you made only so he would bother communicating with you at all, to tell her that you are a good person and should not be fucked with.

She hacks into his much more complicated one to inform him that she knows.

You were left out of this conversation until Roxy hacked them, and he sent the logs to you. Your ghost pretends not to be flustered and claims she was doing her duty.

You wonder, out loud, who gave her that duty. She stays quiet, confirming that it was self imposed.

-  
You find a dead bird in the forest and burry its tiny body, marking it with a tiny tombstone. Must have been little older than a hatchling.

You do not cry for it, as death is part of life. Instead, you celebrate the joy it had while it lived, even if that might not have been for long.

Your ghost watches from the leaves drifting through the forest. They are turning golden as they die.

-

She keeps you warm in the winter. There is always a flame in the hearth, and when you make hot chocolate, you make enough for two. She says there is no purpose, that she is dead and cannot enjoy the wonders of life.

You say, but you want to, and she does not answer that. 

In a way, it is more of an answer than anything she could’ve said aloud.

-

She keeps the nightmares at bay, haunting the dream catcher above your bed. She is a constant presence in your life, and she makes this drafty manor with its ancient walls and sweeping arches feel like home.

And one day, she admits that she hates everything about it. She screams at everyone who’s died here or ran away from her, because they’ve left her so alone. So, so, very alone. And one day, you will leave her too, and she will be empty again. She died to stop an evil from destroying this home, and she’s spent an eternity protecting everyone who so much as passes through its gates at the price of everything she could be. 

She is sobbing, her painful screams sending every door in this cursed home swinging open and shut, open and shut. You want to comfort her, but you know you cannot. There is only one thing you can do.

You set this beautiful ancient manor that you have grown to love ablaze, because as much as she loves it too, it keeps her a prisoner. She cannot protect it if she cannot live in its walls.

And she is freed.

She walks with your body, and she is free. 

You do not die so that she can live. You are still there. It is just that the red veins surrounding your heart are entangled with lime green ones, and when you look, you see with two sets of eyes. 

Calliope is no longer a ghost to this world like you once were, but neither of you are alive like you were before your deaths either. You are the two that are one, and you are something stronger than the sum of your parts. 

And everything that makes you up is completely agreed that you will never again forget the joy of living.


End file.
